Yes, he only has one and I'll tell you what it is. But before I do let me tell you he has several tricks and angles he works to accomplish this single goal. Sometimes he uses force and overwhelms us with difficulties. Other times he fills our lives with stuff, helping us to focus on the material and temporal. In all of it he feeds us lies, but all of it is focused on one thing. Satan wants us to believe that God does not have our best interest in mind. That is his tactic. It's been what he's been up to since his first strike against humanity in the garden, and it's how he continues to work today.
Where did I come to this insight you might ask, well I'll tell you. As I'm in between ministry assignments I'm trying to stay active and involved with ministry as much as possible. Keeping my sword sharp and my shield at hand for when I get called back to the front lines. My pastor mentioned a few weeks ago about teaching a "New Believer's class" and had me sit in yesterday to see how it all works. As the class was working through the first section of material, a section that draws heavily from The Story (see the link in the top right), it talks about the fall of man and in that section I saw the phrase, "He deceived them into thinking that God was not good and did not have their best interest in mind." And as I read that line I began to think back over the past week.
The biggest thing I've been struggling with right now if believing that God wants good things for me. Keep in mind, God does not exist to make me happy. It is not His job to make sure I'm comfortable and content having everything my heart desires. But I am God's beloved son, His precious child, and as such He desires the best for me. God wants to bless me so that I can be a blessing to others. God wants the very best for me, and everything that takes place is ultimately for my good, because all of it serves to make me like Christ.
Satan doesn't want this to happen. He doesn't want us to become like Christ because when we do we draw closer to God and see Him as the loving father He is. Keep in mind a loving father disciplines his children for their benefit. But if we doubt the goodness of God, we will doubt His desire for our best interest. If we don't think God has our best interest at heart, we believe we are left to fend for ourselves. And as we fend for ourselves we are us dependent and not God dependent. If we trust in ourselves we don't trust in God, and if we don't trust Him we can't serve Him. But we must serve someone and there are only two options.
That is Satan's tactic, getting you to doubt God's goodness and love for you.
I've fallen into this way of thinking over the past few weeks. The struggles and hardships have felt like abandonment, not the correction of a loving father. They seem like moments of struggling to survive, not opportunities to trustingly fall into His arms. In the struggles it's easy to forget about the blessings He continues to pour out. It's easy to be focused on the thing we long for so much that we miss everything other good thing God is giving us. We focus on what we can't attain more than what we've been freely given. Yeah, I'm really guilty of that one.
Satan doesn't want you to experience the goodness of God, and so he'll point out the one thing God is withholding so we focus on that rather than the abundant blessing we've been given. Think back to Eden. God said, every plant you can eat from except this one, but every other one you can enjoy. So where is the one place Satan draws Adam and Eve, the one place that is forgiven, and there he focuses their minds on what God is withholding, and in that moment convinces them that God doesn't want them to have the best because the best is the one thing He is keeping from them. The tactic hasn't changed; it's still the same thing because it's the only one he's got.
Where is your focus? Over the past few weeks as I've found myself constantly wondering if I believe God wants good things for me because I'm not able to live out my calling as a minister, I'm constantly reminded of the other blessings in my life. Where do I choose to focus? On the things that He has given me now, or on the one thing He's saying "Wait, not yet, but soon?"
"I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread."
To God alone be the Glory!
Peace be with you
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